Graham Averill will turn 50 this year and he’s freaking out. Instead of buying a motorcycle or getting a tattoo, he’s decided to try to get really, really good at golf. He started this project as a 13 handicap attempting to reach scratch in a year. He is now a 10.3. Welcome to his midlife crisis.
So, I’m 50. It happened quickly one day last week in my sleep. I leave a wife and two teenage children behind.
I’m kidding. Yes, I turned 50 but my life didn’t suddenly end. I woke up the next day feeling great. Stiff and sore in all the places I’m always stiff and sore but still kicking with work deadlines to meet, kids to raise, a lawn to mow …all the stuff that filled my life at 49 was waiting for me after crossing the bridge into 50. Including trying to get better at golf and writing this column. At the onset of this project, I gave myself one year to do my best to reach scratch from a 13 handicap. I knew I was going to turn 50 a few months into this project but birthdays be damned: I was giving myself a solid year to attack the goal of reaching scratch. It seemed like the most reasonable approach to my unreasonable goal.
So here we are, approaching the four-month mark and I figure it’s time for another “State of the Game” update to let you know how I’m doing, what’s working, and where I’m struggling.
First, the cold hard numbers: I’m down to a 10.3 as of this morning, roughly a shot lower than the last time I gave you an update. The strokes are coming off incrementally, largely because I’m struggling to find time to play full 18-hole rounds. Honestly, in the month of June, I struggled to find time to play much golf at all. I had back-to-back-to-back work trips that ate up the majority of my playing time this month. That’s the reality of a project like this in middle age. I’m not 22 years old with no responsibilities. I can’t play six hours a day, five days a week.
The problem with playing nine-hole rounds is they don’t help my handicap much. They’re great practice and I enjoy knocking out a tight 1.5-hour loop on the front or back nine at my home course but GHIN doesn’t like them. I can shoot an even nine and GHIN will apply my handicap to the back nine to estimate an 18-hole score. I understand the system and it’s probably the fairest way to calculate these half rounds. It’s on me to make the time to play 18 more often.
But July looks better and I’m honestly psyched I dropped a digit on my handicap during a month where I couldn’t dedicate a lot of time to the project.
As for the golf I am getting to play, I’m encouraged by the progress I’m making. I will still hit the occasional bad shot but, in general, my swing feels great and my game is steadily getting better. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. I had a great round playing with my son and a super nice random yesterday where I finished the front nine even, then cobbled together a quick five-hole loop on the back because we were running short on time.
I started the round by topping my tee shot on the first hole, dribbling it 126 yards to the edge of the front tees. Awesome. But then I stuck my 170-yard approach shot from the rough to the middle of the green and two-putted for par. The rest of the round was solid par golf with a couple of bogeys on the back (there was a birdie on a par-3 in there somewhere, too) and I finished 14 holes at three over. I did not have my A-game with the driver (see topped ground ball, above) but the ball was always in play off the tee and I was able to hit 67 percent of greens in regulation. Overall, I lost 5.8 strokes to a scratch golfer on the round. I got up and down a few times which has been the story of my short game recently. I’m actually gaining strokes on scratch golfers close to the green recently. I simplified my approach to these shots and have been relying on the bump-and-run most of the time. It’s paid off.
Otherwise, I’m leaking a shot here and there on my drives and long approach shots which I can live with at the moment. But I’m losing a lot of ground on my putting. On average, I’m losing three strokes per nine-hole round to a scratch golfer and most of that damage is being done within 10 feet of the hole. I’m missing a shocking amount of five-foot birdie putts.
My swing was so flawed at the onset of this project that I spent the majority of my energy up to this point working to rebuild and refine that aspect of my game. It ain’t perfect but it’s getting the job done on the course so I reached out to my coach, Sam Hahn, and finally asked for some help with my putting. I sent him videos of my stroke from a couple of different angles and he responded almost immediately.
“Well, the good news is you don’t have the yips and there’s nothing genetically wrong with you,” he said in a text. “The bad news is you have super shitty fundamentals and some bad mechanics. Are you down for a total overhaul here?”
That’s essentially what Sam told me about my full swing when I first sent him videos of my drive and 7-iron shots at the very beginning of this project. “Shitty fundamentals and bad mechanics” could be the name of my autobiography some day.
The swing overhaul he guided me through has changed my game. The dude is a putting guru (founder of L.A.B. Golf) so I have to believe a putting stroke overhaul can have a similar impact, right?
So, yes, I am totally down for a putting stroke overhaul and I’ll document it thoroughly moving forward.
Here are a few other things I’m going to write about moving forward:
Will my scores improve if I stop walking and use carts? I hate the idea of it. I love walking and my puritan work ethic has me believing that using carts diminishes the game. But Sam thinks I should start riding instead of walking. He’s probably right. My home course is in the mountains with a lot of elevation change and it’s a tough walk. When I do get to play 18, I’m usually exhausted by the time I reach the last few holes. Sam thinks riding in a cart could help me save energy so I have what it takes to finish 18 strong. It doesn’t seem to matter what kind of shape I’m in; swing fatigue and decision fatigue is real and something I need to address.
Should I get fitted for new clubs? I play PXG Gen 6 irons and I’m pretty happy with how I hit them but the drastic difference I found after switching drivers has me thinking I should at least experiment with a different set of sticks. I got something in the works on that end that I’m excited about.
I’ve also been reading a lot of books about the mental side of golf and listening to The Mental Golf Show, a great podcast that focuses exclusively on the game between your ears. I’m a head case with all kinds of issues so keep an eye out for an article about that aspect, too.
And that’s where we are, a quarter of the way through this project. Sitting at 10.3 and trending in the right direction. Scratch at 50. Let’s f-ing go.
Dig deeper into one golfer’s struggle to get better at golf in middle age and read last week’s Scratch By 50 where Graham obsesses about the data surrounding his game.
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